TROPICAL AMERICA. — MEXICO. 69 
with in the province of Texas, are the buffalo, or bison, 
known in England as the bonassus, and which enters 
Texas from the north, in vast herds, during the winter ; 
the panther, leopard, bear, otter, beaver, antelope, deer, 
racoon, black fox, &c. The horses, descended from the 
Spanish Arabians, have peopled the rich plains of Texas 
with droves innumerable. These wild horses are often 
large or heavy, but show blood ; and, if caught young, 
are very docile; although, whenever an opportunity 
offers, they are apt to rejoin their wild brethren.”* It 
is impossible to ascertain what animals are here called 
“‘ panthers and leopards,” since these names strictly 
belong to African quadrupeds ; nor are we specifically 
acquainted with any determinate species of antelopes or 
deer peculiar to Mexico. 
_ (97.) On the ornithology of Mexico, our knowledge, 
comparatively, is much more advanced. Several col- 
lections of birds, formed by our countrymen now re- 
sident on the table land, have been transmitted to this 
country, and forwarded for our examination. The 
results are highly interesting. Of 114 species + of land 
birds whose characters we have thus had the means of 
ascertaining, sixty-seven, or more than one half, have 
never been discovered in any other country. Eleven 
are natives of Mexico and of South America, and thirty- 
six are found both in Mexico and the United States. 
It may be urged, that so large a proportion of animals, 
in one class only, being found on the American isthmus, 
is surely sufficient to constitute it a distinct zoological 
province: but it must be remembered, that this pecu- 
liarity extends only to species. For it is a singular fact, 
that not more than one new genus (Ptiliogonys Swains.) 
is to be found in the entire number of 114 species. 
This is one of the most interesting genera recently dis- 
covered, being that by which nature has connected the 
family of tyrant shrikes (T'yrannine), with that of the 
* Mexico, vol. ii. p. 435. ; 
+ These species are enumerated in Murray’s Encyclopedia of Geo- 
graphy, p. 1383. 
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